1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus and a network system for transmitting image information related to a read document, via an Internet protocol (IP) network, to a destination specified by a simple destination specification.
2. Description of the Related Art
During a telephone conversation, it is not always possible to achieve a sufficient agreement merely through the telephone conversation, and an immediate exchange of written text with the conversing party is sometimes desired.
For example, while discussing business with a client on the telephone, a sales representative may wish to give information material such as a pamphlet to the client and continue the discussion while looking at the material. Rather than reading out the contents of the pamphlet over the telephone, such information can be more fully understood by providing a copy of the actual information material.
During a telephone conference, it is desirable to immediately exchange conference papers with participants in the other party's conference room, and to continue the conference with all participants viewing the papers together. Conference papers are usually distributed in advance for remote telephone conferences. However, for example, during question-and-answer sessions, it is often necessary to disclose unexpected papers, in which case, the content of the papers must be explained verbally during the telephone conference although their content could be understood more quickly and fully by handing over the papers.
When housewives and the like are chatting on the telephone, they may wish to exchange magazine articles, advertisements, and the like, while talking. For example, when they are deciding on which hotel to stay at, which restaurant to dine at, and the like, it is more convenient for them to copy and share information from magazine articles and advertisements.
One way of achieving such communication using only existing public lines could be where two public lines are used, one for talking and the other for transmitting and receiving facsimiles. When paper text must be exchanged during the conversation, it is transmitted and received by facsimile. Moreover, because text data and audio data are exchanged through separate lines, the conversation is not interrupted.
However, since two public lines are required, equipment investment and communication cost increase. Moreover, by transmitting and receiving paper text by facsimile, required image quality may not be obtained due to the resolution, the gradation, and the like.
Another way of achieving this communication is by using an existing public line and an IP network, the public line for audio conversation and the IP network for exchanging paper texts. When a paper text needs to be shared during the conversation, the text to be handed over is read with a scanner to create an electronic file, and this electronic file is sent by an email from a personal computer to a personal computer of the other party. A person who receives the email views the electronic file by reproducing it on a display of the computer or on paper.
These operations of creating and viewing the electronic file, transmitting and receiving the email, and the like, must be performed during the conversation, which interrupts the conversation and is inconvenient.
Hence, there is a demand for a technique for exchanging a paper text with another party over a telephone conversation by a simple operation.
In the 1990s, techniques known as Internet Protocol Version 6 (IpV6) and Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) were proposed, and these techniques are still being developed today. Through proliferation of these techniques, various devices connected to an IP network will be able to recognize each other and exchange information.
These techniques are not exceptional to image processing apparatuses, and in the near future, it is expected that various image processing apparatuses will be able to recognize each other and exchange image information by an end-to-end method. For example, an application for real-time printing of an image read by a scanner of a copier on a printer of another copier at a distant location (hereinafter, “copia-to-copia”) is anticipated.
To realize copia-to-copia, a process of confirming a communication destination is important in improving usability. For example, in a conventional facsimile communication, as shown in FIG. 7, the owner of a text confirms the communication destination by inputting a telephone number of a facsimile apparatus of the party to whom the text is sent.
As shown in FIG. 8, when this method is applied in copia-to-copia, the owner of the text confirms the communication destination by inputting an IP address or a media access control (MAC) address of a copier of the party to whom the text is sent, or a unique name that resolves the address.
However, IP addresses and MAC addresses are extremely complex and difficult to remember. For example, an IP address for IPv6 IP consists of a 128-bit identification code and a MAC address consists of a 48-bit identification code. Consequently, users often make typing errors while inputting an IP address, a MAC address, and the like in an attempt to confirm the communication destination, and are unable to reach the correct communication destination. Though the unique name that resolves the address is easier to remember, it is complicated and troublesome for the user to input the unique name that includes a combination of letters, numbers, and symbols, using a small number of hard keys on the copier and soft keys displayed on a liquid crystal screen.
In copia-to-copia, sometimes it is difficult to connect to any copier by correctly inputting the IP address, the MAC address, or the unique name. That is, although recent applications that use IP networks to exchange textual information (emails) are proliferating worldwide, there is an unending problem of a great number of malicious transmissions of advertisements and solicitations to unspecified majority by email (junk mail). In particular, junk mail is sometimes related to crimes such as fraud, and is becoming a social problem.
Therefore, unilateral transmissions of texts such as a direct mail from unidentified parties must be prevented to realize copia-to-copia.
Therefore, the method of confirming the communication destination by directly inputting unique identification information appended to each copier is not always suitable for copia-to-copia. There is a demand for a technique for preventing mistakes in communication destinations arising from operational errors made by users and unilateral distribution of texts from unidentified parties.
Techniques in which image processing apparatuses use communication lines to transmit and receive image information include linking functions of copiers and facsimiles. Following conventional techniques are proposed for simplifying the operation executed by the user when connecting to a communicating party by using these image processing apparatuses.
For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-69133 proposes a communication system in which a telephone number of a connection destination facsimile is obtained by using a telecommunications service inquiry (TSI) and registered in a phonebook of the self apparatuses, thereby eliminating manual registration of the phonebook by the user.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H11-155051 proposes a facsimile apparatus that uses a caller ID announcement service to obtain a telephone number of a caller, and, if the number is not registered in a phonebook of the facsimile apparatus, stores a received text in an image memory and does not output the text on paper until a user of the facsimile apparatus issues a command to permit printing. If the telephone number of the caller is registered as “reject caller” in the phonebook of the facsimile apparatus, the incoming call is rejected. According to this conventional technique, the user can select the texts from trusted parties, and necessary texts only, for paper output.
However, each of these conventional techniques uses an identification number that is unique to each communication terminal (the telephone number of the communicating party), and consequently, there is a need to further improve the usability in copia-to-copia using an IP network and to reliably prevent unwanted transmissions from unfavorable parties.